Thursday, May 31, 2007

Gray Broderick – Mythic Realms CD review

Gray Broderick – Mythic Realms CD (Fossil Records)

Gray is not a novice in the U.S. Underground scene. While picking the guitar at the age of six, he studied hard to develop an advanced guitar technique and he is now considered one of the virtuosos of the Neo-Classical genre in the U.S. scene. While co-operating with many bands including Timejam, Mass Of Virtue, Amethyst, Allegiance, Nyxx, Metal in Action and Final Prophecy, among others. Gray also was constantly working on new musical ideas for his solo project, entitled Mythic Force. Under that name, he released several albums, including “Dark Legions”, “Metal Machine”, “Realms Of Fire”, “Sacred Vision”, “Serenity”, “Mythic Force I”, “Mythic Force II” and “Mythic Force III”. While many of his tracks were also put on mp3.com, “Mythic Realms” came out in 2000 and is once again a collection of Gray’s ideas which ended up as instrumental songs. Even from a flashy listening, it’s obvious that his deeply focused on executing Neo-classical Metal songs with catchy melodies and quite skilful playing. Another fact which I quite enjoyed is that Gray flirts with Phrygian scales and there’s a strong “ala turca” feeling in many of his songs. One bright example is “Dawn Of The Dragon”, a significantly wonderful track that makes known to people that there’s much hidden quality out there and also notifies that Virtuoso guitarists are not an endangered species any more. “Horizons Of Glory” is another grand opus with a Phrygian-based riff and quite baroque atmosphere, which reveals also Gary’s abilities to compose lengthy tracks with even a dull second. It hard to pick favourite songs from “Mythic Realms”, since it’s an album destined for Neo-classical Metal fans and people who enjoy music with vision, passion and skilled performances.If someone thinks that Gray’s career is on the end of the line, then he‘s proven wrong, since he’s already preparing his brand new effort! Check his mySpace profile for further updates on his work progress: http://www.myspace.com/mythicforce . Check also his web-site: http://mythicforce.com/home.htmlDimitris Starakis